Saturday, November 03, 2007

Maybe The Trekkies Have A Chance.

So every fall, Mrs. Kyality makes a list of all the new shows that we’re supposed to check out. We typically sit thru the first few minutes of several different premiers and I admittedly get my kicks out of sniping the crappy ones with the flick of the remote. This season, there’s been one standout that hasn’t received a swift execution, ABC’s new show: Pushing Daisies.

This show’s the brainchild of former Star Trek writer Bryan Fuller. In the heyday of DS9 and Voyager, Paramount had an open script submission policy. Fuller submitted a script, got it produced and eventually worked his way up to co-producer status on Voyager. Since then Fuller has been best known as the co-executive producer of a show I totally don’t watch: Heroes. But this season he left NBC and Heroes to start his very own series.

Pushing Daisies is a fun, surreal combination of Amelie and Big Fish, with a hint of The Royal Tenenbaums. It tells the story of Ned (Lee Pace) a dead-reviving pie maker who accidentally revives his childhood girlfriend, Charlotte 'Chuck' Charles (Anna Friel, pictured above).

The writing is witty and multilayered. The acting is strong and silly in a good way. And the special effects are very tongue-in-cheek and dreamlike. But the best part of the show is Chuck. She’s the uber-positive, walking-dead with a serious Jenny Lewis thing goin' on.

We’ve been watching beautiful, hi-res episodes on ABC.com’s killer Full Episode Player. And after each one, you can’t help but smile and you definitely thirst for next week's. Pushing Daisies airs on Wednesday nights, but the eps are online and ready to stream the very next day. Bottom line, if anything good ever did come out of the late 90’s Star Trek franchise, it’s this.